During his lifetime, Hugo Alfvén became known as one of Sweden’s principal composers of his time, with works that struck a chord with a wide audience. As a result of his popularity, a nationwide collection was held in celebration of his 70th birthday in 1942, with the proceeds used to build Alfvéngården, the composer’s home during his final years. Now, 80 years later, Elin Rombo and Peter Friis Johansson are releasing their tribute to Alfvén’s 150th anniversary, recorded at Alfvéngården using the composer’s own piano. Alfvén is primarily known for his orchestral music – including the ubiquitous Swedish Rhapsody No. 1 – and as a composer of choral music. As befits the setting, the focus of the present disc is on more intimate works, however – namely songs and piano pieces. Some of the pieces are closely related to the venue – Fyra låtar från Leksand (Four Tunes from Leksand) is a piano version of folk tunes collected from a local fiddler and Så tag mit hjerte (‘So take my heart’), Alfvén’s most frequently performed song, was composed there in 1946 as a present to his wife.

REVIEW:

Soprano Elin Rombo has a lithe voice that suits the songs exquisitely, dulcet in ‘The Evening’ and dramatic in the following Seven Poems by Ernest Thiel. She’s not afraid to modulate her tone down to a nearly Gollum-like whisper to wring all possible expression out of a phrase. Four Tunes from Leksand are folk settings for piano that don’t mind taking advantage of the instrument’s capabilities while steering clear of both over-decorating and obtuse reharmonizations.

Rombo rejoins for Two Lyrical Moods and their warm-blooded charm; the recital ends with ‘Sa tag mit Hjerte’ (So Take My Heart), Alfven’s best-known song. Johansson brings plenty of personality to the piano parts. He plays Alfven’s own Steinway A-188 from around 1908; its sound is a little lighter and tangier than a modern grand. Texts in Swedish and English.

-- American Record Guide

The streets of eighteenth-century Madrid; a contaminated test-bombing site in Australia and a song from El Salvador provide some of the subject matter for this album by the United Strings of Europe (USE). Formed in 2012 by students at London’s Royal Academy of Music, the ensemble brings together outstanding players from across Europe. Artistic director is the Anglo-Lebanese violinist Julian Azkoul, who leads from the violin, curates programmes and arranges music for the ensemble. For In Motion, USE’s début recording, Azkoul has arranged Boccherini’s celebrated and atmospheric evocation of the Nocturnal Music of the Streets of Madrid, in a version that updates the original’s flirt with popular music. Far removed both geographically and in mood is Maralinga, Australian composer Matthew Hindson’s powerful and haunting work featuring guest soloist Amalia Hall. The programme opens and closes with works for string quartet, composed some 180 years apart in Vienna and New Zealand respectively and heard in bespoke arrangements by Azkoul. Reflecting the ensemble’s distinctive voice and multi-national heritage and the wide-ranging interests and stylistic versatility of its members, In Motion is a roller-coaster ride of an album.

Based on the short story by the same name by Sadeq Hedayat (1903–51), Iran’s first modernist writer, The Doll behind the Curtain is an opera from Iranian-Danish composer Amir Mahyar Tafreshipour and librettist Dominic Power. It explores themes of alienation, the mysteries of human sexuality and the dissonance, both musical and cultural, between East and West and tradition and modernity. Set in Le Havre and Tehran during the 1930s, the opera tells the story of Mehrdad, a shy Iranian student studying in the French harbour city. After having found a mannequin in a junk shop, he becomes obsessed with its flawless and unchanging beauty and brings it back home to Tehran. His infatuation and inner conflict cause him to destroy his own life and that of his fiancée Bita, struggling to compete with her silent rival. An original and challenging work of musical theatre, The Doll behind the Curtain was composed in 2015 and is Tafreshipour’s first opera as well as the first Iranian opera with an English libretto. It was premièred in London in 2015 and is here heard in a recording by the team that also performed it at the Royal Danish Opera in 2020.

Dividing his time between the United States and the United Kingdom, the composer Geoffrey Gordon writes music that has been described as ‘darkly seductive’ (New York Times), ‘richly satisfying’ (BBC Music Magazine) and ‘iridescent and fierce’ (The Chicago Tribune). The present album brings together three of his recent works, all composed between 2013 and 2018 for the soloist recording them here, the Danish cellist Toke Møldrup. In several of his works, Gordon takes his inspiration from other art forms – sculptures by Giacometti, a self portrait by Warhol, a children’s picture book by Maurice Sendak. The works gathered here are inspired by or reactions to three literary masterworks. The ‘creative blueprint’ for the opening work, the Cello Concerto, is the novel Doktor Faustus by Thomas Mann. Organized into a Prologue and Seven Episodes, the work traces the progress of Mann’s protagonist Adrian Leverkühn from innocence to madness, with the cello both embodying and (occasionally) commenting on the proceedings. For this recording, Møldrup receives the support of the Copenhagen Phil and conductor Lan Shui. In the score of Fathoms, Gordon’s sonata for cello and piano, each of the five movements is headed with a quotation from Shakespeare’s The Tempest which sets the scene for the musical impression that follows. Here Møldrup is joined by the American pianist Steven Beck. The amply-filled album closes with Ode to a Nightingale, with the words of John Keat’s immortal poem heard from the Mogens Dahl Chamber Choir, and given emphasis by Toke Møldrup’s obbligato cello.

Leading Swedish composer Jesper Nordin’s soundscape lies at the crossroads of Swedish traditional music, rock and improvised music. On this recording, Daniel Harding and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra perform Röster (‘voices’), a trilogy whose works are each based on different kinds of Swedish music which the composer sees as being part of his background. In Åkallan (‘Invocation’), Nordin has used the traditional vocal technique called kulning as his starting point. Extreme metal rock (through the band Meshuggah) provided the material for Ärr (‘Scar’) and the result is an explosive rhythmic scream that has seldom been heard in Classical music. Finally, Öde (‘Fate’ or ‘Deserted’) incorporates recordings by the legendary Swedish opera singers Birgit Nilsson and Jussi Björling in an electronic part which interacts with the orchestra. Performed by violinist Malin Broman and the ensemble Musica Vitae, 3rd Retrospective belongs to a series of works in which Nordin looks back on his own music in various ways. Here, he goes back to the music of his childhood, written and played on the violin by his father. More specifically, he uses a tune from a play written by Nordin’s father, namely a polska, a traditional dance whose origins are to be found in Poland.

When the ORFEO label was established in Munich forty years ago, surely no one with the music scene back then would have predicted that the record company would develop into a firmly established player on the classical music market. One of the label’s main priorities in the early years was vocal music, with opera rarities top of the list and since the mid 1980s the re-use of historic tape recordings. Big names featured on the label’s own productions, while ORFEO also developed into a talent factory by discovering and nurturing young artist. This “ORFEO 40th Anniversary” 2-album sampler well reflects these two sides of the label by combining highlight tracks of historical recordings with today’s global stars.

While globalization advances, all countries staunchly retain two unique features: their distinctive national flag and a bonding national anthem. The anthems reflect an enormous indigenous diversity, but relatively few are generally known by citizens of other nations, making any comprehensive compendium a source of endless interest and discovery. We invite you to take a musical tour of Naxos’ definitive set of national and regional anthems, from Algeria to Kuwait. Lapland to Zanzibar, and all stops in between. You’ll be delighted by the gems that are waiting to be discovered and compiled into either personal or family favorites. And you can check out the flags in the process with our informative supporting booklets! Welcome to the Naxos set of The Complete National Anthems of the World.

John Philip Sousa personified turn-of-the-century America –the comparative innocence and brash energy of an advancing nation. His ever-touring band represented America across the globe and brought lively and entertaining music to hundreds of American towns. Sousa’s name is eternally connected with famous marches such as The Stars and Stripes Forever, but his exceptional inventiveness also saw the creation of popular operettas such as El Capitan. This program also includes Sousa’s adaptations of humorous songs and popular ballads as well as his Good-Bye, based on the idea of Haydn’s ‘Farewell’ Symphony but with a modern twist.

In his second album for Willowhayne Records, virtuoso pianist Dominic John presents 24+1, a truly ground-breaking recording based on the ‘circle of fifths.’ From the power of Eduard Abramyan’s Prelude in F sharp minor to the poetry of John Ireland’s The Holy Boy, 25 composers extending across 2 centuries of music are represented in this unique musical journey that is sure to delight the listener. Dominic’s pianism has won him several prizes, including First Prize in the 22nd Brant International Piano Competition, British Music Society Awards, RCM Chappell Gold Medal, a Director’s Golden Jubilee Award at the RCM, and a laureate of the Corpus Christi, USA International Competition for Piano and Strings. He has performed in the Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room, Queen Elizabeth Hall, and abroad in France, Holland, Poland, Ameica, Korea, and Japan. He studied at Chethams School of Music, the Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music where he held the RCM Society Junior Fellowship from 2004-2006. A versatile musician, Dominic is in demand as a soloist, member of various chamber ensembles and accompanist to a wide variety of singers and instrumentalists.

The Italian operatic repertoire offers some of the most passionate and much-loved music in the classical canon. In this outstanding collection, Azer Zada has selected music of moving intensity, dramatic power and spiritual resolve in works by Donizetti, Mascagni, Leoncavallo, Puccini and Verdi. Favorite tenor arias such as Nessun dorma!, Una furtiva lagrima, Recondita armonia and E lucevan le stelle are included, as well as three essential intermezzi by Mascagni. In the 2019–20 season, tenor Azer Zada made his debut in Cavalleria Rusticana /Pagliacci at Ravenna Festival, under the baton of maestro Riccardo Muti. He has alsosung leading roles under conductors Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Chailly, Nello Santi and Myung-Whun Chung. The Baku-born tenor has been awarded numerous prizes in competitions such as Concorso Lirico Internazionale di Portofino and First Prize in Concorso Voci Verdiane. This is also his first solo recording.

Prolific in every aspect of music throughout his long and distinguished career, Carl Reinecke represented the complete musician with the belief that art should bring happiness to mankind. His imaginative transcription of Beethoven's bravura Triple Concerto sees the three instruments retaining their solo essence and sharing in the orchestral tutti to create a quintessential addition to the piano trio repertory. Heard here in its world premiere recording, Reineckes First Piano Trio inhabits the passionate and expressive sound world of Schumann and Mendelssohn.

Albrecht Mendelssohn Bartholdy was the grandson of Felix Mendelssohn. He was also a polymathic intellectual a prestigious jurist, political scientist, and one of Germanys observers to the Treaty of Versailles negotiations in 1919. Conscious of his heritage he also wrote songs, taking texts from Eichendorff, Goethe, Heine and the folk collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn, as had Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn. These ardent love songs were inspired by his student Magdalene Lena Schoch who, soon after her graduation, became the composers indispensable and trusted colleague and confidante. Through songs Albrecht Mendelssohn Bartholdy was able to reveal and profess his true sentiments, in a form seemingly acceptable to his family. And by setting to music poets whom Felix and Fanny had chosen earlier (Eichendorff, Goethe, Heine, and the folk song collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn), Albrecht paid tribute to his ancestors while consciously joining the lineage of the Mendelssohn familys musical tradition. Albrechts commitment to the cultural heritage of his hometown is reflected in his frequent choice of lesser\-known poets from Karlsruhe.

Albéniz’s distinctive musical vocabulary, with its sensual harmonies, rich melodic lines and characteristic rhythmic figures, has ensured lasting popularity, not least in his music for the piano. This album of four-hand piano music reveals the composer’s love of Spain’s regional music traditions, whether in the glittering sweep of the Suite española No. 1or in the Rapsodia Española where a hypnotic dreamscape meets dramatic outbursts. Two movements from Iberia – one of which is a rarely encountered arrangement by the great Spanish pianist Alicia de Larrocha – reveal a daring modernity that aligns Albéniz with Debussy and Ravel.

Carlo Domeniconi is a master of guitar composition. His fusion of Western and Eastern elements is a distinctive feature of his writing, and this album presents a body of work for the unusual combination of mandolin and guitar. The large-scale Durandarte charts a medieval knight’s wild journey through the countryside, which is accompanied by poignant love songs, elegies, and agitated cross-rhythms. In Tarantula precox he summons up a dervish-like dance; while in the kaleidoscopic moods of Zemrude the Orient and the Middle East merge dramatically. All but one of these works have been composed especially for the Mare Duo. The Mare Duo has inspired numerous composers to enrich the repertoire for their formation, including Carlo Domeniconi, Jaime Zenamon, Konstantin Vassiliev, Jürg Kindle, Frank Wallace, Thomas Allen LeVines, Lars Wüller, and many others. The Mare Duo is also interested in performing the classical repertoire for their formation as well as playing innovative transcriptions. Annika and Fabian have released several solo, duo and chamber music albums with labels such as Naxos, Schott Music and Gyre Records, and they have appeared on TV productions including MTV Unplugged.